Process and apparatus for treating fiber-bearing plants



L. N. GILLIS. PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING FIBER BEARING PLANTS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.8.191B- N OTJL E 4 Nu m u 2 MI. 6 x mm 04 m m W 4L2 H m a a 2/ P a a Z a G v fi f 2 9/ 2 -L. N. GILLIS.

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING FIBER BEARING PLANTS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 8. I9I8- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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Patented June 17, I919;

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LY E 1v. e LLIs, or sIIINGTCIv, DISTRICT or CoLUIvIBIA, Assreivort, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO FIBRE COMPANY or NORTH AMERICA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

PROCESS AND .APIPARATUS FOR TREATING FIBER-BEARING PLANTS.

Patented June 1'3, 1919.

Application filed November 8, 1918. Serial No. 1,743.

To-all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LYLE N. GILLIs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Washin the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes and Apparatus for Treating Fiber-Bearing Plants, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates-to fiber treating maehinery and has special reference to a ma chine for loosening and removing the useful fibers 0f fiaX and other fiber producing plants from the context of the straw or the like from which the fibers are derived.

I am aware that other attempts have been made to produce a machine which will treat such plants commercially but, from various causes such machines, while capable in some few instances of producing small experimental quantities of fiber, have invariably failed to properly remove the shives from the fiber when attempts have been made to produce the latter in commercial quantities.

In the treatment of fiber producing straw or the like, it is necessary to break the shives into short lengths while leaving the fiber unbroken. In former machines attempts were made to accomplish this result by bending the straw at a greater or less angle without previously cracking the shives at the end points, the bending being accomplished by corrugated rollers or the like. I have found that this manner of breaking the shives also causes a very considerable loss due to the fiber breaking up into short lengths, it being in fact impossible to produce long fiber by this method.

One important object of the present invention is to obviate the foregoing and to this end I provide means for pinchingor crushing the straw at short intervals, the pinching resulting in cracking the shives without injuring the fiber, so that no tension is put on the fibers when the straw is subjected to the action of the bending rolls.

Moreover, I have found that the shives cling closely to the fibers even after the straw has been subjected 'to the action of the bending rolls. It is, of course, possible to comb these shives out, but much fiber is also combed out in this process. I have discovered that these shives may be pulled loose from the fibers without injury to the latter and a second object of this invention is to provide a machine having certain peculiar arrangements of rolls which will effect such a pulling off of the shives after they have been broken.

l/Vil'h the above and other objects in view, as will be hereinafter apparent, the invent1on consists in general of certain novel details of construction and arrangements of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and specifically claimed.

In the accompanying drawings like characters of reference indicate like parts in the several views, and

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the machine,

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the opposite side of the machine,

Fig. 3 is a plan view of such a machine, and

Fig. 4 is a partially diagrammatic view showing the outlines of the rolls and their arrangement.

The numeral 10 indicates the side frames of the machine and the upper edge 11 of each frame is inclined as shown. From this upper edge extend inclined slots 12 in which are located lower bearings 18 and upper bearings 14, these bearings being held apart by springs 15. Each slot is closed by a cap 16 wherethrough passes an adjusting screw 17, by means of which the positions of the upper bearings relative to the lower or fixed bearings may be adjusted for purposes hereinaftei to be described.

The bearings in one frame are disposed in alinement with the bearings in the other frame and in each pair of alined bearings is carried a shaft 18. One end of each shaft (see Fig. 2) is provided with a gear 19 which meshes with a corresponding gear of the like end of a second shaft, the shafts thus being geared in pairs. At the opposite end of one shaft of each pair is fixed a bevel gear 20 which meshes with one of a series of bevel gears 21 fixed on a shaft 22 running along the frame and carried in bearings 23. This shaft 22 forms the drive shaft and is provided with a suitable power receiving wheel as at 241. On the upper or first pair of shafts are carried prismatic rollers 25 which are so arranged that the angles of each cooperate with the faces of the other so that as straw is passed between these rolls it is pinched at frequent intervals. The second pair of shafts carry corrugated rolls 26 which effect bending of'the straw back and forth.

The third pair of shafts carrying the drawing rolls 27 one of which is of slightly greater diameter than the other so that straw, the shives of which are broken by the previous sets of rolls, when fed between these drawing rolls will be subjected to a rubbing action which is found to effectively remove the shives from the fiber.

In' operation the straw, which may be either in its usual dry state or may have received suitable degumming treatment, is fed through the rolls being successively pinched, bent and rubbed, thus freeing the shives so that they fall out of the fiber freely and leave the latter in long unbroken lengths eminently suitable for spinning if already treated or for treatment before spinning by suitable chemicals if desired. There has thus been provided a simple and efficient machine of the class described and for the purpose specified.

It is obvious that manyminor changes may be made in the form and construction of the invention without departing from the material principles thereof. It is therefore desired to protect all such variants as come within the scope claimed.

What is claimed is a 1. In a straw treating machine, means to primarily effect pinching of the straw under treatment, means to secondarily effect bending of said straw, and means to finally effect rubbing of the material;

2. A process for treating straw for the production of fiber and freeing the same from shives which consists in pinching the straw under treatment at spaced intervals, thereinafter forming corrugation like bends in said straw and finally rubbing the pinched and bent straw.

3. In a straw treating machine, means to preliminarily effect pinching of the straw under treatment comprising a pair of poly onal pinching rolls, eflect bending of said straw comprising a pair of fluted rolls, and a pair of drawing rolls arranged to eifect rubbing of the material passed through the 'bendingrolls.

4. In a straw treating machine, means to primarily effect pinching. ofthe straw under treatment, means to secondarily effect bending of said straw, and a pair of cooperating drawing rolls geared to rotate at equal numbers of revolutions per minute, one of said rolls being slightly larger in diameter than the other.

In testimony whereof I afiiX my signature.

LYLE N. GILLIS.

Witnesses:

HoNonA W. BURTON, MORRIS GOLDENBERG.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

means to secondarily 

